


I feel the earth (move) (under my feet)

by beepbedeep



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: EARTHQUAKES ARE SCARY!!!, F/F, friends are nice!, kya helps!!, lin is LITTLE and the world is WEIRD, projecting projecting projecting!!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:20:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26642878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beepbedeep/pseuds/beepbedeep
Summary: The next morning she’s glad her mom can’t see the dark circles under her eyes. Lin is not going to be a disappointment, she’s Toph Beifong’s daughter and she’s going to be a great earthbender too.
Relationships: Lin Beifong/Kya II
Comments: 10
Kudos: 88





	I feel the earth (move) (under my feet)

When Lin is little, she’s _terrified_ of earthquakes. She’s fine for years, but when she turns five and gets her first official earthbending lesson (from her mom, who admittedly doesn’t know anything about teaching kids) it hits her. Stability isn’t a given. The ground can _move_. (She’s seen it move before, felt it shake, been slid around by her mom and tried her best to trace her own cracks into the gravel at her favorite playground, but this is _real_. This is bigger.) 

For fun, Toph shows her how far she can rip up the dirt and Lin sees the disruption for _miles_. It doesn’t matter that her mom puts it back after, doesn’t matter that she left the place where they stood totally intact, all Lin can think about the line of destruction traveling faster and faster and faster, how if anyone other than her mom was doing that _they might not have protected her_. That night, as she tries to fall asleep, she feels the ground shake every time she shuts her eyelids. The next morning she’s glad her mom can’t see the dark circles under her eyes. Lin is _not_ going to be a disappointment, she’s _Toph Beifong’s daughter_ and she’s going to be a great earthbender too.

Coincidentally, this is when Su is born and Lin finds it easy enough to blame her new lack of sleep on the constant crying when her teacher finds her asleep in the corner for the third time. Lin didn’t ask for a sister, fails to see the upsides of the squishy, boring addition to her family, but Uncle Sokka used to be around all the time, even more than he was at Uncle Aang’s house, and then he stopped coming by for a while (no one ever bothered to tell Lin why) but now he’s back, swinging her around in the kitchen, packing her lunch, walking endless loops around their house with Su until she falls asleep, whispering with her mom after they send Lin to bed, and having a baby around is _kind of gross_ , but Uncle Sokka makes everything better when he’s around, so Lin can’t bring herself to mind too much. 

He’s actually the first one to figure out something’s wrong, when he picks her up from school and she starts crying because _what if it’s not there tomorrow what if something happens what if it’s bad_ and he’s so mystified that she ends up in her Aunt Katara’s kitchen, still sobbing, kicking her feet in the too-tall chair and thinking about how it would feel to have the ground suddenly drop out from under her feet while Uncle Sokka talks to his sister in hushed tones. Eventually they simultaneously wrap her in a hug and while she’s squished between their bodies, Aunt Katara tells her to focus on them holding her, that _someone will always catch her before she hits the ground_. (She clings to them, wipes her eyes, and relaxes a little more in her chair, before Bumi runs in (cued by a wink from Katara) and pulls Lin out to play with him and Kya. She breaths a little easier. It’s easy to get lost in Bumi’s fearlessness and Kya’s enthusiasm. She likes it here.

When her mom finds out, after Lin tries to get out of bending practice for the fifth time, refuses to even bend her favorite toy (brightly colored sand) into a new shape, and starts screaming (pulse reaching a pace of absolute terror almost immediately) when Toph moves to bend a spire of rock near them. Her mom doesn’t understand how Lin can be so scared of something _she can control_ and tells Lin over and over again _this is why you need to learn, so you don’t have to worry about anyone else protecting you_. Later, Sokka tells her that just because earthbending saved Toph as a child doesn’t mean her daughter is going to feel the same way, tries to explain that Lin has just started to think about _how big the world is and don’t you remember how scary it was when we were her age? to realize something you thought would always be the same can change? and people might get hurt?_ Toph sighs and leans into his side, his arm wrapping around her shoulders in a familiar reflex and they breathe together in the dark, because _fuck it’s harder to raise kids than you’d think_.

Still Lin has to learn how to bend, even if the thought of the ground _moving_ makes her chest get tight and throat close up. She learns to not cry, learns to push the terror down into her hands, to still her shaking legs. She begs her mom to let her learn metalbending first, she learns how to make the ground around her solid and still, she learns how to raise whole stone palaces from under the earth’s surface, and she learns how to fight. Sokka hugs her extra tight after she practices, waiting for her lower lip to stop trembling, and Toph tries to ignore the way Lin’s muscles don’t relax for hours because she really isn’t the world’s greatest parent but _this is something she knows how to teach her daughters_. Each day Lin digs her nails into her palms as she feels how _huge_ the earth is, how deep it goes, and every night she dreams about earthquakes. About things crumbling around her, the very thing she relies most on shaking underneath her feet. The fear keeps up with her. She learns how to stabilize the ground around her (all she can feel is deep, deep down, where she has no control of the earth’s roiling) and her dreams turn into panicked races around the city as she tries to save her family, her favorite restaurant, the library Kya likes to spend hours in on weekends, but it always ends with crumbled buildings, broken people, everything being _different_. She wakes up screaming more than Su does now, and people are starting to lose their patience _it’s been long enough who’s ever heard about an earthbender who’s scared of earthquakes_. 

She only tells Uncle Sokka about her nightmares now, but he and her mom are fighting _again_ and they’ve been subjected to the cold, confusing meals that Toph makes when she gets home from work (instead of Sokka’s actual food) more and more recently. Lin isn’t very old, but she can still can feel the difference when he’s not around, just like always. Su acts out more, her mom comes home later and later and Lin spends most of her free time on Air Temple Island where people are at least sort of happy. She’s too young to officially take the ferry across by herself, but Lin knows her mom wouldn’t mind anyway, so she learns how to take herself across and her aunt is always waiting for her with a smile that Lin has learned to associate with safety. 

It’s one of these days, when Lin is still shaking from bending, unable to think about anything other than thousands of footsteps shaking the ground, that she ends up at the air temple. It’s sunny and bright, Lin likes being near the water because her bending senses feel muted here, and instead of going inside like normal she walks towards the water where Kya is practicing her bending too. And, maybe it’s been a while or something, because Kya is _really, really good_. She’s twirling long streams of water above her head before flinging them out farther and farther and Lin knows that airbending is what’s supposed to be really special, but Kya moving her arms in time with the rush of the ocean is the _coolest thing she’s ever seen_. This is what it looks like to be at home in your bending, Lin thinks, and then all she can think about is the way Kya’s hair is shining in the sun until the other girl turns around and waves. 

All Lin can think to say is _wow that was really cool_ and Kya ducks her head, blushing, _it’s fun, mom showed me a bunch of new things today_. The jealousy must flash across Lin’s face because suddenly Kya looks concerned. _is it true that you’re scared to bend? Uncle Sokka says you’re really good, but that you have nightmares_. Normally Lin would straighten her spine and brush the insinuation of weakness off (she is her mother’s daughter after all) but there’s no judgment in Kya’s open, friendly face and besides, this is _Kya_ , they’ve known each other their whole lives, so she nods and when Kya asks _why?_ Lin doesn’t feel like lying. _the ground moving is scary. I don’t like it. it’s supposed to not move._ She realizes how silly her explanation is by the time she’s done, but Kya’s nodding like she cares. _I guess I’m lucky I don’t have to worry about that. water is supposed to move, so if I move it everything is still ok. I bet if anything bad happened you’d still be ok. and if you needed help I would come rescue you! earth moving is more like water and water is cool!_ She smiles, and Lin looks out at the waves, the push and pull of all the water, thinks about how much she likes floating at the beach on hot days. Water moves. So does air, and so does fire, and none of that is too scary. Something inside of her relaxes. _if you needed help, I would come save you too._ Briefly she thinks about running up to Kya in an earthquake, bending the ground around them steady, and holding Kya’s hand as they run away, or better yet, combining forces and stopping a rogue earthbender together. Kya is rolling a ball of water between her hands and on an impulse Lin reaches out to touch it. It slides against her fingers and she smiles, maybe this bending thing is going to be ok. 

(years later, Lin's balance will falter whenever Kya walks into a room, her presence making the solid material under her feet unsteady. It's not a bad feeling, especially when her legs wobble and she stumbles against Kya's warm shoulder)


End file.
